As Jews we must have an interest in worldwide hatred, because
we are so often its recipients. Whatever its address, we can
never be sure that it will not be sent to us next. The
following words, edited somewhat for our readers, are taken
from one of the regular columnists of the New York
Times, Bob Herbert, and highlight a phenomenon of growing
concern.
The hatemongers have gone global, aided by the Internet and
the unmistakable drawing power of white power music. The music
is mostly an amateurish mix, with "vocalists" screaming and
screeching like in a song called "Third Reich," recorded by
the Canadian band Rahowa (which is short for Racial Holy War)
in which the singers call for killing "blacks, Jews, gypsies
and Commies."
White power music is a growing phenomenon. Hammerfest 2000
didn't get a lot of news coverage, but it was the most
successful white power concert in the U.S. last year. It was
held in October and drew racist skinheads galore to the town
of Bremen, Ga., which has a population of 4,500 and is about
50 miles west of Atlanta.
Local officials are still embarrassed and reluctant to talk
about the event.
The two-day concert was a raging success for hard-core fans of
Hitler and lynching and the developing ideology of "pan-
Aryanism." A group called the Bully Boys drove the Nazi-
saluting crowd into a frenzy with a song called "Six Million
More." And all other references to the extermination of Jews
and deviants and the mass killing of blacks were warmly
received.
The Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center,
which tracks the activities of hate groups, reported that
"Hammerfest 2000 drew fans from Austria, Canada, France,
Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as from across the
United States. The concert culminated months of worldwide
networking by sponsors Panzerfaust Records and Resistance
Records, the premier neo-Nazi music labels in the U.S."
Call it the commodification of hate. In the new world order,
everybody's an entrepreneur. It's just that some products are
more egregious than others.
The music helps the hatemongers in a number of ways. Proceeds
from concerts, compact discs and related items help finance
the operations of major neo-Nazi and racist revolutionary
groups. And in conjunction with the Internet and the cheap air
fares that have eased international travel, the music has
helped link racist groups throughout Europe and the
Americas.
"The music has also been terribly, terribly important in
bringing young kids into this movement," said Mark Potok, who
edits Intelligence Report, a magazine published by the
Intelligence Project.
More than anything else, he said, the music is luring the new
recruits.
"I've talked to many people who have come out of this
movement," Mr. Potok said. "To a man and to a woman, they say
it was the music, more than any other influence, that brought
them to the movement in the first place."
Impressionable youngsters in Jackson, Miss., in Oldham,
England (where race riots erupted in May), or in Krakow,
Poland, can listen to the same racist music -- songs about
barbecuing Turks or hunting blacks or torturing Jews.
The world is already ablaze with ethnic and religious hatred.
So hate music, which deliberately encourages the violent
tendencies of its practitioners and its fans, is fuel for an
already raging fire.
In the United States this music is protected by the same
Constitution that allows me to speak freely in this column. So
this is not a call for censorship. What is important is that
people of good will be made aware of a phenomenon so corrosive
to a free society. It shouldn't be allowed to flourish in the
dark. You don't want to censor this garbage. But you do want
to throw a spotlight on it.
